Vijay Iyer — Mutations Δ Born in 1971 to parents who emigrated from India to the U.S. in the 1960s, Bay Area-based composer and pianist Vijay Iyer has led several distinct combos, including Spirit Complex, the Poisonous Prophets, and the Vijay Iyer Trio. Born: October 26, 1971, Albany ~ Rochester, New York, USALocation: New York CityAlbum release: March 4, 2014Record Label: ECMCatalogue number: 3764798Duration: 60:20Tracks:01. Spellbound and Sacrosanct, Cowrie Shells and the Shimmering Sea [piano] 7:4002. Vuln, Part 2 [piano & electronics] 4:3403. Mutations I-X [string quartet, piano & electronics], Mutation I: Air 4:1304. Mutation II: Rise 2:4405. Mutation III: Canon 5:4706. Mutation IV: Chain 5:2607. Mutation V: Automata 6:3208. Mutation VI: Waves 3:0009. Mutation VII: Kernel 5:5910. Mutation VIII: Clade 1:3511. Mutation IX: Descent 5:1712. Mutation X: Time 4:0013. When We're Gone [piano & electronics] 3:30Personnel:Vijay Iyer (piano, electronics)Miranda Cuckson, Michi Wiancko (violins)Kyle Armbrust (viola)Kivie Cahn-Lipman (cello)Notes:♣ Vijay Iyer is the son of Indian Tamil immigrants to the US. He received 15 years of Western classical training on violin beginning at the age of 3. He began playing the piano by ear in his childhood, and is mostly self-taught on that instrument. After completing an undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics at Yale University, Iyer went to the University of California, Berkeley, initially to pursue a doctorate in physics. Iyer continued to pursue his musical interests, playing in ensembles led by drummers E. W. Wainwright and Donald Bailey. In 1994 he started working with Steve Coleman and George E. Lewis. In 1995 he left the physics department and assembled an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Technology and the Arts, focusing on music cognition. His 1998 dissertation, titled Microstructures of Feel, Macrostructures of Sound: Embodied Cognition in West African and African-American Musics, applied the dual frameworks of embodied cognition and situated cognition to music. In 2010, he joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers._______________________________________________________________♣ Mutations is Vijay Iyer's first album as a leader for ECM, and a recording that will widen perceptions of the pianist-composer's work. At its centre is "Mutations I-X", a composition scored for string quartet, piano, and electronics. A major piece built out of cells and fragments, it veers through many atmospheres, from moment to moment propulsive, enveloping, lyrical, luminescent, and strangely beautiful.♣ Through thematic interactivity, the interweaving of acoustic and electronic sound-textures, and some decisive improvisational interventions in notated music, Vijay Iyer has created a multi-faceted suite whose very subject is change.♣ The Mutations suite is framed by three solo statements: Spellbound and Sacrosanct, Cowrie Shells and the Shimmering Sea, a solo piano reading of one of Iyer's early compositions, and Vuln, Part 2 and When We're Gone, pieces created in summer 2013. The newer compositions put the piano in counterpoint with electronically generated rhythms and textures which extend the aura of the suite, making the arc of the whole album a journey over changing terrain.♣ Vijay Iyer was born in Albany, New York. He studied mathematics and physics at Yale, and received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in the cognitive science of music from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been on faculty at Manhattan School of Music, New York University, and the New School, and in January 2014 joined Harvard University as the first Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts. Iyer's many musical collaborators have included Steve Coleman, Wadada Leo Smith, Craig Taborn, Ambrose Akinmusire, John Zorn, DJ Spooky, and Talvin Singh. He first recorded for ECM in 2007, as a member of Roscoe Mitchell's Note Factory on the live album Far Side.Website:http://vijay-iyer.com/MySpace: https://myspace.com/vijayiyerFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/vijayiyermusicPress: Matt Merewitz, http://fullyaltered.com/Agent: Myles Weinstein, http://unlimitedmyles.com/ [US & Canada] / Katherine McVicker, http://imnworld.com/ [everywhere else]Pi Recordings: http://pirecordings.com/artist/Vijay_IyerAs leader:♣ Memorophilia (1995, Asian Improv Records)♣ Architextures (1998, Asian Improv / Red Giant Records)♣ Panoptic Modes (2001, Red Giant Records)♣ Your Life Flashes (2002, Pi Recordings) (as the trio Fieldwork)♣ In What Language? (2003, Pi Recordings) (in collaboration with Mike Ladd)♣ Blood Sutra (2003, Artist House)♣ Reimagining (2005, Savoy Jazz)♣ Simulated Progress (2005, Pi Recordings) (as the trio Fieldwork)♣ Raw Materials (2006, Savoy Jazz) (in collaboration with Rudresh Mahanthappa)♣ Still Life with Commentator (2007, Savoy) (in collaboration with Mike Ladd)♣ Door (2008, Pi Recordings) (as the trio Fieldwork)♣ Tragicomic (2008, Sunnyside)♣ Historicity (2009, ACT Music + Vision)♣ Solo (2010, ACT Music + Vision)♣ Tirtha (2011, ACT Music + Vision) (in collaboration with Prasanna and Nitin Mitta)♣ Accelerando (2012, ACT Music + Vision)♣ Holding It Down: The Veterans' Dreams Project (2013, Pi Recordings) (in collaboration with Mike Ladd)_______________________________________________________________